Breaking: Izhmash & Kalashnikov Concern Now Sanctioned by US Government

Released earlier today as part of a new line of “targeted” sanctions, the US Department of Commerce has banned all financial transactions with Izhmash & Kalashnikov Concern. While not a outright ban on imports, prohibiting companies from dealing with the manufacturer or its interests monetarily will kill the supply.

To put it plainly, there will be no more imports of popular Saiga rifles, shotguns, and other sporting arms for the foreseeable future.

The ban is effective today until otherwise lifted by Executive Order (or Congressional Action to that effect.)

374. If I own a Kalashnikov product, is that product blocked by sanctions? Am I able to resell a Kalashnikov product at a gun show or other secondary market?

If a U.S. person is in possession of a Kalashnikov Concern product that was bought and fully paid for prior to the date of designation (i.e., no payment remains due to Kalashnikov Concern), then that product is not blocked and OFAC sanctions would not prohibit the U.S. person from keeping or selling the product in the secondary market, so long as Kalashnikov Concern has no interest in the transaction. New transactions by U.S. persons with Kalashnikov Concern are prohibited, however, and any property in which Kalashnikov Concern has an interest is blocked pursuant to OFAC’s designation of Kalashnikov Concern on July 16, 2014. If a U.S. person has an inventory of Kalashnikov Concern products in which Kalashnikov Concern has an interest (for example, the products are not fully paid for or are being sold on consignment), we advise that U.S. person to contact OFAC for further guidance on handling of the inventory. [7-16-2014]

One of TFB’s resident Jarheads, Nathan now works within the firearms industry. A consecutive Marine rifle and pistol expert, he enjoys local 3-gun, NFA, gunsmithing, MSR’s, & high-speed gear. Nathan has traveled to over 30 countries working with US DoD & foreign MoDs.

The above post is my opinion and does not reflect the views of any company or organization.

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Jim

I don’t know how well saying this will go over but… Given the Russian Federation’s actions in Ukraine, I don’t see how anyone can take issue with sanctions against Kalashnikov and a ban on new ones.

totenglocke

Yeah, how dare the people of Crimea think that they should get a say in their fate! Remember folks, democracy only counts when you vote the way the President of the USA wants you to vote!

allannon

But, of course, letting Russia military dominate the “democratic” process is A-OK.

Yea, that makes a whole lot of no sense.

totenglocke

Except for the fact that the Russian military wasn’t involved until *after* the US and their cronies decided to make military threats because Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine.

But hey, let’s just keep bullshitting because AMERICA IS NEVER WRONG!

allannon

That fails completely to be in any way factual. What the hell pro-Russian websites have you been reading?

totenglocke

You mean reputable news sources from all over the world? Only rabidly pro-imperialist news groups were pushing the bullshit that the “evil Russians” were forcing Crimeans to vote for independence from Ukraine.

allannon

Except they didn’t. Any claims to the contrary are false.

Pro-Euromaidan protests started in early February.

The first indications of Russian involvement–“gunmen” who were in all observable ways Russian military–started several days later.

Less than 48 hours after the sanctions were started, the Russian military officially moved in; since this would require extensive logistics and staging, in addition to the preceding protests, it obviously wasn’t a spur of the moment movement.

Any claim that sanctions predate Russian involvement are factually false, and rationally indefensible.

Guys stop the political talk. I really don’t want to start deleting comments.

allannon

Yea, Steve already pinged us about that. 😉

dp

That is your prerogative Phil and you are right. As the same time, in today’s politically charged atmosphere you cannot be that surprised. I invite you to erase any of my comments, if you wish to do so.
My own take is that “guns do not have political stripes”. They are and can be used by any side who feels prompted to. They are in that sense ‘politically inert’ and that’s what I like about them.

Dan

Right and Russia isn’t imperialist, yea ok. Show me the part in the Ukrainian constitution that gives Crimea the right to secede? Any way we seen it coming we are all bummed out now on to the guns

Jay

I think Obama found a sneaky reason to ban some more firearm imports. May have little to do with the Mess in Ukraine right now.

Anyway ,Crimea, is Russian land. Was only Ukrainian since the fifties. It was just a gift by Khrushchev, (back then USSR president, from Ukraine), to the Ukrainian republic.
There are over 80% Russians there.
And that’s not the only “gift” Ukraine got back then. It also got parts of Moldova and Romania.

So if you want to complain about something please find other reasons, because Crimea is not a good reason.

Mike

Funny how more Crimeans voted for independence than people living in Crimea.

Also funny how ‘Totally not Russian soldiers’ were taking over Crimean towns and military bases. Like totally, we promise they aren’t Russian soldiers, you guys. Honest.(crosses fingers behind back)

some guy from scandinavia

Gun related reply: The special forces soldiers in Crimea where easily identified by the zenitco gear on their weapons. Made me contact zenitco and buy a bunch of stuff for my AK hehe. I love the hinged dustcover, keeps zero perfectly on my red dot mounted on it. Good sturdy stuff.

dp

Do not doubt your country as People. It is the elites who are outside reach of accountability and therefore commonly applicable laws. They have agenda far reaching in objectives and goals. People, as typically were in past are reduced to hapless audience.

Gentleman, this is not the place to discuss geo-political politics. This is for guns.

allannon

Erp, sorry.

MrApple

geopolitics and battle for firearm freedom= same thing/two sides of the same coin

J.T.

Steve, I know you do your best to keep politics out of the blog, but with a move like this the only way to prevent it would have been to disable comments completely for the post. The post is about a political action by the Obama administration, it is going to cause political discussion.

Danmaku

Articles like this are soaked in politics. What else is there to comment on besides just bitching? Politics is not bad where it is relevant, we just want to avoid the “preaching to the choir” that happens in heated arguments.

Gwolf

Hah. I knew it. Snapped up another Saiga back when the Ukraine situation was first bubbling up. Plus a lot of cheap commie ammo.

But, I’m a panic buyer don’tcha know? Derp.

Bummed because I was looking forward to the new models coming in that you reported on recently.

A VERY telling comment from a strictly U.S. domestic standpoint — excellent call.

dp

Right on: “..land of brave, home of free…”. While I do not doubt the first, I do NOT want to speak of latter.
Speaking of ‘commie’ ammo; I do doubt who is more ‘commie’ at this time. (Commie x freedom)

Frenchie

Part kits… the answer to this problem…

Sam Schifo

There are plenty of AKs coming in from other countries besides Russia. We don’t need parts kits yet, it isn’t that bad…..yet.

Scott

Except most are made by amateurs which are poor quality fit and function – wise compared to imports unless you want to spend big money from an elite builder which are in the thousand’s. Does Century, I.O., TGI, Hesse/Vulcan/Blackthorne ring a bell? Cause those will be the “affordable” domestic AK’s that we have to look forward of the administration goes full on AK import ban from everyone.

It’s a good day for U.S. companies manufacturing their own AK receivers.

Paul Epstein

Vaguely. They still have to compete with the other post soviet AK manufacturers, like romania and yugoslavia, who do a lot of business in the states even with izhmash able to undercut them.

If someone in the US was able to drive down cost of production to where they were close to those government subsidized factories, they’d already be selling their guns by the truckload.

iksnilol

Hate to nitpick but Yugoslavia is not “post-soviet”.

Why not just make own receivers, AK receivers are pretty easy/cheap to make especially if you do it in bulk.

Paul Epstein

I was unclear- Yugoslavia isn’t itself a post soviet country, but it’s one of a large number of countries that after the fall of the soviet union began exporting aks to the US, because they had state arsenals built up because of the soviets and suddenly no use for those factories except making arms for export. I include Egypt and, in the past, China on the list. While Norinco and Izhmash aren’t allowed to bring in guns, all of the others are continuing to do so.

And the receivers are easy to manufacture, yes, but the trunnions, barrels and other necessary pieces require a fully tooled factory or ridiculous amounts of hand labor. Importing those from Russia is also affected by this ban, by my reading, and labor in the US is going to be much higher for the same skill for assembling guns even from parts kits.

Its not illegal to own one. They are simply banning the importation of weapons from certain manufacturers. It does not effect the legality of any guns.

Gwolf

Yes you would be good.

If you’re looking for one with the rear conversion already done, and done very well, I suggest you take a look at the rear conversion ones that Classic Firearms offers. Going for $619 at time of this post.

I got one from them. It was tip top on the conversion and they were on their game in terms of customer service. Matter of fact they notified me that it had arrived at my FFL before my FFL did.

I say that if you you were wanting one, (or two) get one while they can still be had.

Polytech Legend anyone?

David

Thanks I was just curious.

mrt

glad to see my recent purchase (60 secs ago) validated.

DiverEngrSL17K

Agreed about Classic Firearms. I’ve selectively purchased a number of firearms in the past from them, and have yet to be disappointed. I will certainly vouch that they have an efficient tracking system that promptly notifies the buyer as to the status of his/her order. Their customer service standards are very good and are generally acknowledged by most to be of a high order.

n0truscotsman

The Bulgarian Waffens are quite good. Every one i’ve come across shoots really well. Atlantic was selling Izhmash saiga “converted” copies for 829 I believe. I havent checked, but they will probably be sold out unless everybody became sick and tired of panic buying.

Well then, there goes 12 gauge kalashinkovs… Vepr and Saiga were the only 2 i knew of…. any other companies making them?

Scott

The Catamount Fury and other Chinese semi-auto shotguns are the only one’s now.

Gregory Markle

RWC was actually anticipating this and they have been working at sourcing manufacturing here in the US…unfortunately it will be a while before they are truly ready to do so according to my friend who brought us some guns to T&E the other weekend. I hope it doesn’t boost the projected MSRP of the 3-gun oriented Saiga shotgun we got to shoot, I think I fell in love with that thing!

And no Steve, he didn’t bring a 107 with him.

SM

Maybe I’m just dense: Why? Will they ban the import Russian-produced too?

noob

and why is it that in english if we sanction someone we disapprove of them, but if we sanction an action we approve of it?

Oliver Ashford

The contronym (also spelled “contranym”) goes by many names, including “auto-antonym,” “antagonym,” “enantiodrome,” “self-antonym,” “antilogy” and “Janus word” (from the Roman god of beginnings and endings, often depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions)

MclarenF1Forever

Doubtful the regime would ban Russian vodka, since it hurts their own people as well. This sanction hits two, firearm owners/enthusiasts, generally disposed to be unfavorable towards this regime’s policies & actions, and Russia.

John

Whelp, we’ve still got Bulgaria….

Johnny J

Hurray for expensive AK’s!

Sam Schifo

Don’t forget Poland! And all of the surplus ones floating around in Eastern Europe.

skusmc

And those are an EO away apparently, too.

M

Well, we have 1) Romania for the Budget AKs, 2) Yugoslavia/Serbia for the Entry level AKs that are actually made pretty nicely, 3) Parts guns made from small companies that run in the mid-high quality range, and 4) Arsenal for the overall best made production AK (although I’m sure someone is going to come in and rage about his arsenal having canted sights, but notice i said production).

What we lost is the ability to turn a ~500$ very well made sporter into a great AK. (I’m sure someone is going to come in and say they got their Saiga for <$300 but lets be honest, with the exception of hunting for one for ages, those days are long gone)

What I'm actually worried about is the fact that this is not a finished list of sanctions. Obama is coming out with the complete list and I'm wondering if Wolf ammo/Tula Ammo is going to be affected. We as Americans have been slowly developing a better business rapport with them, and they have been slowly increasing their quality in response. It'd be sad to see that stripped away.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr !!!
I suppose the Ukraine mess is the convenient excuse for this ban? I’m sure the left is chuckling, rubbing their hands together and toasting their cleverness with Stoli
BAN THEIR DAMN STOLI!!!

jamezb

Steve, excuse my comment ‘s political nature, but the very nature of this story – a government ban- is pretty clearly a political move that effects the industry and gun owners. If you feel the need to delete it, I won’t be offended.

To people thinking this may be repealed or go away: This happened to Chinese AKs back in the 90s when Clinton banned them by Executive Order. See any new Chinese AKs around? This really pisses me off….

Gwolf

Exactly. Looks like whatever is in stock or in circulation will be the last we’ll likely see. Pisses me off too.

sadlerbw

Any possibility of other countries buying up Russian parts, assembling them into whole guns, and shipping them to the US? It sounded like Kalashnikov Concern was really gearing up to serve the consumer market and rely less on military sales. Banning imports to the US would pretty much ruin that plan. I’m wondering if they may try to set up a third-party in another country to act as the ‘manufacturer’ in order to get around this ban.

Michael Wilson

this is bullshit!!!!

IWishSomeoneWouldFoAlready

Fuck Barack Hussein Obama. The Founding Fathers would have marched onto Washington for less than this shit.
Yes I am fucking pissed. First our Garands, now our Russian AK’s, we didn’t “win” on gun control you dopes, the Kenyan is enacting a piecemeal gun ban.
Frog in the pot, people.

iksnilol

I don’t want to get in a political discussion but he is from Hawaii not Kenya.

GUNxSPECTRE

Facts?! Grrr. I believe what I want to believe!

Odeezy Liita

Wrong.

MrApple

So his possibly faked birth certificate says.

Sulaco

His records in college show he claimed Kenyan birth to get student aid and his own publicist up until he was running for the senate put out publications stating he was a Kenyan national. Who do you believe?

dp

May I advice: do not be fooled by what you can see!
The real cause is what you do not see and they have their agenda, irrespective who is the current officer for public relations. Cool off.

Too bad it’s a heavily and straight out deceptively edited version of his actual speech and doesn’t reflect at all what he was saying that day.
Go ahead and watch the whole 20 minutes… The message he was trying to get across was sadly a completely different one.

Porty1119

Have you seen what’s going down at the border? Folks are arming up, and ready to take on the traffickers. All it takes is one shot and this country changes irrevocably.

USMC03Vet

What a jackoff.

Anything he can do to bypass congress and affect gun owners.

hydepark

Sorry if this has been discussed but is there a conclusion on here to the effect this will or will not have on the Molot and Arsenal Bulgarian stuff? I have been saving for a new under folder. Thanks.

iksnilol

Bulgaria is not Russia so Molot and Arsenal won’t be affected. Same applies to ammo, S&B won’t be affected neither will Igman.

hydepark

Thanks for the reply. So the Vepr’s are officially done then? This is horrendous.

iksnilol

Veprs aren’t done for since the executive order specifically banned izhmash and kalashnikov concern.

n0truscotsman

Molot is a Russian manufacturer, although i didn’t see it on the list. Good question. I would assume that the embargo will affect them too.

JW

While I will hate to have to pay more for a quality AK, I don’t mind putting my money where my mouth is in standing against Russia’s actions. Have say Mitt called it but not enough of us were listening.

Blake

Time to get that biathlon rifle I always wanted!

bbmg

The title is ambiguously worded, I first understood sanctioned as meaning “approved by” as opposed to “under sanctions from”.

dp

You are right. It is what has drawn my attention.

n0truscotsman

This was inevitable, to say the least. it is certainly something the sensible among the gun world have been forewarning would-be buyers since the incident in Ukraine started to heat up. There is no conspiracy or gun grabbing plot, so unreasonable comments against traditional pro-gun control sides in power are completely unfounded. There are still Kalashnikov’s imported from other countries besides Russia (bulgarian, polish, former yugo, romanian, etc). Maybe century’s US-produced AK will become more popular.

Maybe instead of blaming the “socialist muslim kenyan sleeper” (tongue in cheek for those that have no sense of humor), or “gun grabbers”, you probably should have cut the cable and saved your pennies for a Russian AK.

Now, who wants a AK105 copy? 😉

albi

I don’t really get it. Why Izhmash haven’t opened a factory in the US years ago? They could manufacture AK receivers here, import Russian made parts, assemble the AKs in the US and not care about this 922r bullcrap. Am I missing something?

ytifi

labor cost

albi

Yeah, I know this could be a major factor but they could still manufacture every other part in Russia.

Max Glazer

Still not worthwhile. Manufacture every part at IzhMash factory in Izhevst, pack them all up, ship them to USA to some assembly room, pay import taxes, unpack, assemble, run all the tests and then pack and send to buyer. Might as well do the whole job in Russia and send over the completed weapon.

sometrend

not 922r compliant that way.The law clearly states a certain # of US manufactured parts in each weapon

If wolf/Barnaul/vympel/tula somehow get banned (dear god I hope not) will someone else (prvi partizan) pick up the slack and start producing mass quantities of 7.62×39 for the us market? I’ve been strongly considering dumping my FAL and getting into the 7.62×39 game and just buy a case every month…

Mike

Yeah, that would suck… but there are a couple things that make me feel like Wolf wont be banned.
1) It’s a US company that imports ammo from many sources, not just Russia
2) The US government relies on Wolf imported, Russian made ammo. I recall that CJ Chivers (great journalist btw), wrote about how the US contracted Wolf Ammunition to provide x39 and x54R ammo in Afghanistan for use by the local security forces. Seeing as we’re still in a war and having everyone switch over to 5.56, is not feasible, they have to keep a source of import open.

Furthermore, banning russian made x39 ammo is shutting a door and opening a window:
I find it hard to believe that, if the cheap ammo empire/monopoly that Russia has built for itself is dethroned by import bans, no other eastern european company would rush to fill that seat.

Ian Engle

Firearms. Not politics. Sorry Steve, love ya and all but pull your head out of your rear. Firearms ARE politics. This shit is going to happen more and more.

n0truscotsman

Then go over to the fucking “truthaboutguns” or the dozen or so other gun blogs that discuss politics.

I specifically come here to learn new stuff about guns (and im not the only one), not discuss the politics of gun laws and get into flame wars with anti-gun shitheads.

To get a bit off subject, if people want to discuss Crimea and Ukrainian/Russian geopolitics, go to any news source on the open internet. This western media vs RT acolyte slapmatch is fucking ridiculous.

David Sharpe

Technically, this is news. W’re not talking about who we should all vote for in the next election (Well, some are, but the writers aren’t writing about that.)

Stevan

Just wondering, are there any international laws against third party sales? What’s stopping Izmash from moving their receiver stamping tools to a trade-friendly country, manufacturing the receiver there (i.e. stamping it made in, for example, Turkey), importing the rest of the parts from Russia, assembling the rifle and re-branding it as a third party for importation into the US?

MANG

If you brought in an AK with Kalashnikov parts to the US during these sanctions, yeah, that’s a violation of the sanctions. That’d be like how Iraq used to move their oil through third parties to avoid US sanctions in the Saddam days. Also unpatriotic, you give a damn about that sort of thing.

M

Norinco does that now, assembles their guns in Turkey at they get here via IAC/Tisas

That goes against my understanding of sanctions, seems like a pretty big loophole to float through. If that’s really how those guns are made, I wonder why they let that fly? If the money still goes into Norinco’s pocket, what’s the point of sanctioning them?

dan

It’s not unpatriotic, stop with that nonsense

GR

I just made a petition on We The People, I encourage the readers here on The Firearm Blog to not only sign it, but to share it. We can reverse this. http://wh.gov/lLtet

vetforlifesix3

Signed.

GunTotingLib

Why do you want to send your money to our adversary? Is that not the same as giving aid and comfort to our enemy. Would you buy a gun from a Iranian company. We should not buy any russian made products. Support America and our allied countries.

Dan

That will do little, all we will get is a stupid video saying how important it is to express our concerns but all you gun totting bible thumping idiots go back to your backwoods shacks because we effectively banned some guns. Now start a petition for a leftist cause and Obama will make an appearance and tell you what a fine upstanding citizen you are.

smartacus

…and right before the Malaysian 777 got shot down? When it’s too coincidental, you can rule out coincidence.

Here’s a better way to explain it to the obtuse: Take the conspiracy nonsense somewhere else, and check yourself, when addressing me as “son”, cupcake.

I have a novel idea: Im not picking sides in this conflict.

There is nothing “not coincidental” about this. Many anticipated an arms embargo, which would inevitably affect Kalashnikov Concern, since Russian troops initiated the semi-covert invasion of Crimea.

smartacus

I’ll let it go this time, but check yourself before you post impulsive passive-aggressive outbursts. These people don’t need to hear it. Especially since i didn’t hurt anyone with anything depressing or spamming.

n0truscotsman

Im the one that needs to check myself? Im not making hasty assumptions about the embargo, bucko. I dont need to check shit.

smartacus

Oh yes you do need to check yourself, and now I’m including the words “in an institution”. You really can’t see it can you? It’s a shame because admitting you have an unresolved childhood issue is the first step towards the healing process. It’s never too late. You can do it. You deserve to feel good about yourself.

n0truscotsman

Your cowardly deflection/ad hominem is noted. This is a common trait among conspiracy “theorists”.

smartacus

Again, you don’t even notice yourself. You are the one who has done nothing BUT indulge in ad hominem attacks on me from the very beginning.

Look, I don’t want everyone here to learn any more of your psychosexual issues involving your parents because it’s not appropriate, okay? So please stop. Or at least if you could try being less obvious. If you admit to having an issue wrestling with your emotions, that is the first step to healing yourself.

n0truscotsman

The first step for you to heal yourself is to stick your head into a bucket full of water until you stop squirming.

You can always start now….

smartacus

See now you’re crying and wishing me dead. Take it easy son. All this because of some past emotional pain inflicted on your inner child? i can only imagine the cigarette burns and Coricidin trips you inflicted on your body. Stop hating yourself.
Look in the mirror and force yourself to smile 🙂

Guess what, John McCain wants even *tougher* sanctions against Russia. I don’t know if you know how this works. These sanctions are to hurt the Russian economy for giving missile launchers to rebels in the Ukraine, among other things. This has nothing to do with Democrats vs Republicans.

CBDS

John McCain is a Rino. I guess i should have clarified and said… We need level headed, pro American leaders in office.

clinton notestine

if he’s a RINO i fear the real republicans

MANG

Warhawks (often conservatives) want strong US responses to foreign aggression. They want to punish Putin. That’s why this is being done, they’re hurting a symbolic part of the Russian arms industry.

Whether they keep these sanctions in place afterward is another story, maybe then you can have a RINO vs real conservatives argument.

Max Glazer

If you honestly think that closing a market which Russian-made weapons aren’t even all that common (mostly non-Russian AKs in USA) then you are wrong.

US police are still about to receive their shipments of Russian-made Semi-auto shotguns since contract was signed and paid for.

What foreign aggression? US hasn’t been invaded by ANYONE since WW2.

GuidoFL

John McCain is a RINO as every awake voter knows and his is a war monger if ever was one in the senate !

Pie in the sky

Russians must be really trembling in their boots …

Wally

Goodbye Saiga, Veper, and all the good stuff… now we’ll just get ripped off by Bulgarian knockoffs from Arsenal. Or cheap kit rebuilds from Waffen Werks or Century.

n0truscotsman

Whats wrong with Bulgarian Arsenals? Their steyr-technology barrels are just one excellent feature they have. Waffen Werks are also excellent budget AKs. Century seems to have gotten its shit together since the days of 2007.

There’s the Yugo and Polish ones too, which are excellent. Lots of good options besides Saiga or Vepr AKs, as unfortunate as the embargo is.

Wally

Nothing wrong with them, just the prices are too damn high for Arsenal. I have all of them, except Saiga and Veprs…. I put them off… now my collection is incomplete…

Leigh Rich

Glad I have what I have already. Bet it will effect the ammo too. Maybe sell one this fall if prices go up.

GuidoFL

This is a Obama end run to ban firearms PERIOD ! This ban will never be lifted as long as a democrat is POTUS !

Brian Diffenderfer

So maybe we can expect Izhmash or Kalashnikov to allow an American manufacturer to produce AKs.